To improve medical care, the cabinet wants to continue the slow expansion of so-called primary care. The goal is to triple by 2025, Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) announced on Thursday with ÖVP health spokesman Josef Smolle. The change is also intended to disarm the doctors’ association if a bottleneck prevents new doctors from being found six months in the future.
There are currently 39 primary care facilities (PVE) in seven states. The original goal of building 75 centers by 2021 was thus missed. Now a new goal has been set: by 2025, the supply must have tripled to 121 centers. Patients benefit from these medical teams, who also work together with other health professionals such as midwives, for example through longer opening hours. Politicians are also busy relieving the outpatient sector and ‘contemporary’ working conditions for doctors.
Rauch: The veto power of the Medical Association has become obsolete
In January, Rauch complained that there were too few PVEs due to resistance from the medical association. “I think it is anachronistic that the medical association has a right of veto when establishing a primary care” – a regulation that is no longer current. The government’s new plan: If two general practitioner or paediatrician positions are vacant in a region, the chamber and the health insurance fund (ÖGK) must have six months to find new doctors. According to this, the state government and ÖGK should be able to jointly advertise a primary care facility – the approval of the medical association would no longer be necessary.
Pediatricians, Gynecologists & Co. can also co-found the center
The general terms and conditions should also be relaxed on other points. According to the plans, paediatricians will also be able to call on primary care in the future, in addition to general practitioners. Shortage professions such as gynecologists are preferred when establishing a business. Doctors who do not yet have health insurance must also be able to participate in the foundation after the amendment to the law. In this way, the doctors of choice will be increasingly integrated into the health insurance system. For example, instead of three panel doctors and one nurse, a panel doctor, a doctor of choice and a nurse should be able to set up a PVE in the future.
100 million from the EU pot
EUR 100 million is available from the EU development fund for the expansion of primary care. The amendment to the Primary Care Act, which is now being examined, could also be called “Project Bergdoktor” or “Project Landdokter”, Rauch said. Because there is a shortage of panel doctors, especially in rural areas. “You shouldn’t have to rely on carrying your credit card,” Rauch sees as a “step out of two classes of medicine.”
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
